Better Times Ahead
NOTHING yet has been decided, but Saturday's win has eased the pressure on Boro and Gareth Southgate expects better from hereon in.
"We have two games coming up where nothing is expected from us," he acknowledges looking ahead to consecutive matches with the top two in the table, Chelsea and Manchester United. "But we seem to be better in those situations. I won't take too much from Saturday, I always want the performance, but the points were crucial.
"The other results meant that we desperately needed that result, we have pulled away a little from the bottom now.
"We seem to have been fighting for our lives for most of this season and I would have loved to have buried Derby, but just when it seems you have a game where you can push on you get three or four knocks during it and that seems to be the story of our season.
"But we got the result and we're only a couple of good results away from safety and then maybe we can relax and play a bit."
With several players away on international duty and others on the treatment table, training may resemble a five-a-side game this week, but work will continue unabated to ensure a promising end to a frustrating campaign.
"We're grinding it out, but we have to better than we have been," says Southgate. The boss smiles when he adds, "I think we'll have to kick the other way in the second half of games at home. We seem to defend that goal for the last 20 minutes and I'm sick of looking that way! Saturday was like the game against Fulham and Wigan the whole of the stadium held their breath."
